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Conditions along the Front Range are stellar for sunsets

By Quentin Young Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
08/31/2013 04:40:42 PM MDT

Updated:
02/24/2014 02:31:05 PM MST

Longs Peak and Mount Meeker are seen as the sun sets in August.

LONGMONT -- If you've noticed an abundance of spectacular sunsets along the Front Range lately, you're not alone. It's hard to miss an evening sky broadly painted with orange and red, and there have been more of those evenings than usual in recent weeks.

One of the people who's been enjoying these natural light shows is Jeff Weber. As a scientist at the Boulder-based National Center for Atmospheric Research, he has the advantage of understanding exactly what conditions in the sky produce these explosions of color.

"There are a couple of things that have been working in our favor in the past few weeks," he said.

One of those things is that seasonal monsoon moisture is producing clouds that serve as canvases for the color. Light from the sun when it's low in the sky is scattered -- a scientific term -- in the atmosphere such that reds and oranges are brought out. A low sun under a cloud deck will often equal brilliant sunsets.

But large airborne particles from wildfires in the western United States have heightened the effect of scattering on the Front Range, and it's the combination of smoke and monsoon moisture that's creating the remarkable views, Weber said.

Having mountains just to the west helps, because they help spur cloud formation, he added.

The type of atmospheric conditions that produce these shows typically arise around July and August.

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